


An Outside Perspective

by TippenFunkaport



Series: SPOP Canon Compliant Post-War Fics [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Bow's Brother, Catadora, F/F, F/M, Family, Fluff, Glance, Glimbow, POV Outsider, Post-Canon, Scorfuma, seamista - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TippenFunkaport/pseuds/TippenFunkaport
Summary: An average Etherian and his mentor travel to Bright Moon to attend Queen Glimmer’s ceremony honoring the regular people who acted heroically during the Horde War and get a first hand look at all the rebellion chaos they’ve only ever heard about in the NewsVids.But why does the Queen’s boyfriend look so familiar?Comic one shot set a few months after the final episode with almost everyone and moments of Catadora, Glance, SeaMista and Scorfuma but mostly Glimbow because I cannot help myself.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: SPOP Canon Compliant Post-War Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877971
Comments: 38
Kudos: 264





	An Outside Perspective

"Imagine being king of all this," Dirk whispered to Britt as they joined the line of people waiting to get into Bright Moon castle. Islands of rock floated above them, water poured down from impossible pools, everything shown with a kind of rainbow pearlessence. He whistled. “I’d love to see the face of the team who comes upon the ruins of this someday!"

"Only you would look at this place and think, ah if only it were dusty and busted, then it would really be something!" Britt did that bark of hers and smacked him in the bicep which was luckily all she could reach. It actually stung. He resisted the urge to rub the spot. The old lady was stronger than she looked. "We gotta get you above ground more often."

"Hey, if I hadn't been underground, you'd have been alone with all those mindless greenies and the Queen would never have invited us here as honored heroes of the Horde war!" They were nearly at the castle now, where a tassel headed guard was ushering them through a wide scalloped archway. "Though it feels a little less special now that I see how many of us are here for this thing."

Britt snorted. "Takes a lot of good folk to root out evil that deep."

Dirk was going to reply, but he found himself dumbstruck when they passed under the archway into a kind of large antechamber. He was so used to seeing this sort of building in ruins it took his breath away to see it at the height of its splendor. He wondered how much of this had only recently been redone or whether the Horde had left Bright Moon untouched. Was hard to imagine those demons leaving anything unspoiled.

His gaze followed the vaulted ceiling far up above their heads and then he was scanning the crowded room. There were people everywhere, races he’d never even seen before in all his travels, many of them making him feel severely under-dressed. At least most of the others in their line seemed to be common folk so he fit in well enough, though he was glad Britt had forced him to wash his hair and get this new tunic in town. What he usually wore at a dig or around the museum was definitely not nice enough for this place.

“The islands, the water… how’s all this work?”

“Magic.” Britt wrinkled her nose. “It may have saved us and all but it still gives me the creeps.”

Now that he thought about it, there was a curious feeling in the air. A kind of tingle. He knew his father had plenty to say about the princesses and their magic and none of it good but this… it felt strange, yeah, but friendly too. Certainly better than the long dead feeling that lingered around the old First Ones ruins. At least this felt alive.

He heard a voice in the distance and whipped around. There was something familiar about it. He tuned to the sound for a moment but… no, it must have been his imagination. Still… he scanned the crowd.

Britt followed his gaze. “Looking for someone?”

“My dad said my kid brother would be here tonight. Apparently he’s getting honored too though I can’t imagine for what.”

“Not one for heroics?”

“Definitely not. Quiet. Bookish.” Dirk scanned the room, wondering if he’d even recognize his brother if he saw him. It had been a while. “Maybe he helped the rebels interpret some ancient symbols or something.”

Britt shrugged. “Or maybe you don’t know him as well as you think you do and he’s a secret badass.”

Dirk laughed at that, loud enough that a couple of people glanced over. He thought about the little guy hiding at the corner of the last big family gathering, trying to avoid every question about school or friends or future, looking at those Horde freaks and doing anything other than wetting himself. Not a chance. Hell, he was handy enough with a pickax after all those excavations and those clones still scared the crap out of him. Well, they were meeting up with their parents after the dinner later, he’d be able to ask him soon enough. Though the curiosity was killing him.

The farmers in front of them in line shifted forward and Dirk could see that they were being shown one by one to a floating dais on which two figures sat in ornate thrones that towered over their heads.

“Who's up there? I can't see a damn thing from down here.” Britt tried to peer around the line ahead of them but she was a good head shorter than everyone else here. “Not King Micah? I thought he was helping rebuild Mystacor.”

“Looks like two women.” Sometimes being built like an armored tank had its advantages. The line shifted again, and he got a better view. A flash of pink and purple caught his eye as the two goat ladies at the head of the line bowed low.

Britt stepped out to the side so she could see. “Ah. That one’s the Queen. No idea who the blonde with the ponytail is.”

They had moved forward again and Dirk saw them both clearly for the first time. Ponytail had a soldier’s build and was wearing a simple red suit with gold and white boots. She looked like she would rather be anywhere in the world but signing parchments and hugging the babies everyone kept shoving in her face. The other woman was doing a poor job of hiding that she found this hilarious. Whoa, so that was the Queen? She was gorgeous. Everything about her sparkled and not just the jeweled tiara or iridescent cape she wore over her simple gown.

“The one in purple… that’s King Micah’s wife? Kind of young for him, no?”

“Good grief, do you ever watch the NewsVids? That’s his daughter, Queen Glimmer.”

“Not princess?”

“Yeah. Something happened to the mom. Magic nonsense of some sort.” Britt elbowed him. “Stop drooling.”

Dirk grinned at her. “Come on, I gotta at least try! You said it yourself, the King’s just her dad. That means there’s an opening!”

“Don’t get your hopes up. Remember that boy from the hologram? The rebellion soldier?”

“No way.” The man at the front of the line had brought what appeared to be a baby goat that was trying to eat the edge of the Queen's cape. Ponytail was trying to deter the animal with her foot but the queen only laughed and patted the goat’s head. “Some sweaty brute of a solider with her? She deserves way better.”

“He didn’t look all that brutish to me.” Britt watched as Ponytail engaged in a battle of wills with the goat and lost, to the queen’s infinite amusement. “Apparently he’s the one that got everybody their minds back.”

Dirk shrugged. He wasn’t about to give this guy any credit. Hadn’t gotten a great look at him anyway. He’d been in the middle of a heck of a battle with his dig crew, all of which had gone green, and when they’d gotten their minds back it had been a confused few moments of shovel smacks and wait-a-minutes before anyone realized what was happening.

The farmers in front of them had reached the dais when there were raised voices and a loud thud outside. The Queen and Ponytail exchanged a look when a cluster of something flew through one of the tall windows. Dirk got only a glimpse of purple frosting and sprinkles before the objects froze in mid-air, suspended in some kind of white net.

“Boom! That’s an even two dozen for me! Ha, now I'm winning!” called a voice. Dirk only glimpsed white and blue yanking the net back out of the window and into the pink whirlwind beyond before it went back to clear skies again. If anyone else thought that was odd, they didn’t show it and the room went back into the murmur of quiet conversation a moment later.

It was their turn next and Dirk was trying to think of the perfect thing to say to impress the queen, when a cat woman in a slightly charred maroon suit ran in on all fours, skidding to a halt in front of Britt and Dirk.

“Spark--” she began and then, looking back at Britt, Dirk and the rest of the waiting people, hesitated and did an awkward begrudging kind of bow. “Uh, a word, your… majesty?” Both Ponytail and the Queen snort laughed in unison. The cat woman gave them a very dirty look but leaned between them and started whispering.

Dirk only caught a few words, which didn’t make a ton of sense. Words like “cupcake making robot” and “running wild” but it made enough sense to the Queen who rolled her eyes and waved them both off. Ponytail leaped up like she’d just gotten out of jail free.

Ponytail grabbed the cat girl’s hand. “Babe, do you mind?”

“You idiot,” the cat girl said affectionately and kissed her full on the mouth. Wow, they were really going at it. But half a minute after their lips touched, ponytail exploded into golden light and when it cleared, the girl with the ponytail was gone and, in her place, stood a eight foot tall warrior goddess.

“Wow! The She-Ra!” Dirk said out loud without meaning to. There were way too many pretty girls in this place. “I thought she was a myth.”

The cat girl turned and gave him a sharp tooth smile. “Yeah, well, she’s my myth, buddy, so go ahead and close that mouth,” she said playfully, her tail still wrapped around the She-Ra’s leg. The She-Ra, warrior of legend, was just staring at her with a goofy smile on her face.

The Queen groaned, but she was smiling. “Just go you two before Entrapta completely wrecks the place!”

With a whoop, the two raced out of the room, leaving awed whispers behind them.

“Don’t worry, that is just a normal thing that she does!” said the roguish looking fellow acting as the queen’s herald. He smelled like the sea and burnt wood. “Allow me sing to you the shanty of how She-Ra and I, single handedly, defeated--”

“Please, just read the introduction.” Queen Glimmer slumped her face into her hands in a very unqueen like gesture that just made Dirk like her more. 

“Queen Glimmer!” began Sea Hawk, grandly. “This is Britt and her apprentice Dirk who bravely barricaded their whole village inside the ruin they were excavating and protected them from Horde soldiers for weeks until the rebellion had its glorious victory in which I played a key part which I will now sing to you about… Oooooh--”

“Sea Hawk! That’s it!” Queen Glimmer made an adorable frustrated growl and gestured for a guard standing nearby. “Send me someone else. Literally anyone else. Is Double Trouble here? Tell them they can introduce every single person as a new character if they want so long as they just READ the paper and don’t keep trying to turn it into a musical number.”

“But Glimmer I--” The fellow looked crestfallen, mustache drooped, but he stopped when a blue-haired princess took his arm. “Oh, my darling Mermista, there you are!”

“Ughhh.” Mermista — That’s the mermaid one, right? Though he didn’t see any fish tail under that dress. He’d have to ask Britt how it worked later. — rolled her eyes but smiled. “Come on, ya Goober, leave Glimmer alone so she can finish her boring queen stuff. It’s more fun outside, anyway. Pretty much everything is on fire, you’ll love it.”

Glimmer whipped her head back up. “Wait. What's on fire? What are they doing to my castle?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m, like, totally going to put it out in a minute.” Mermista swatted vaguely in the queen’s direction and she and Sea Hawk left out the same way the others had.

The young queen watched them go with a heavy sigh and then turned back to Britt and Dirk who bowed, Dirk giving his a little arm flourish he’d seen painted on a bit of pottery once. Queen Glimmer sat up a little straighter and gave them a bright smile. She was tiny, wouldn’t even come up to his broad chest. “I’m sorry about my friends. We tend to… attract chaos.”

“Attract it or cause it?” Dirk winked. Beside him, Britt groaned at his attempt at being suave but the Queen laughed. Ha! Take that old, lady, I still got it.

“Definitely the second one.” The Queen laughed and then she seemed to really look at him for the first time. She cocked her head. God, she was adorable. He’d assumed the glittery look was some kind of make-up but up close it seemed like it was coming right off her skin. “Have we met before? You look kind of familiar.”

Well, this was an opening to flirt if ever he heard one. He flashed her his most winning smile but before he even opened his mouth, Britt was barking out another laugh.

“I doubt it, your majesty. He’s spent the last five years mucking about in dirty old ruins, stinking up our work tent in the same sweaty old shirt he’d still be wearing here today if I hadn’t made him change.”

When Britt caught his eye, Dirk gave her a look that he hoped conveyed, “You are the absolute worst wingman.” She gave him an infuriating smirk.

But Queen Glimmer was furrowing her brow at Dirk, still trying to place him, before shrugging and accepting the two medals an attendant in a flower crown handed her. “Well, in behalf of the rebellion and the Princess Alliance, thank you for your heroic efforts during the war. Without the work of good, ordinary people like you, we never would have been able to turn the tide against the invaders and you have Bright Moon’s thanks.”

The speech was rehearsed but seemed heartfelt enough. There was a pause as she handed each of them their medals and Dirk was desperately grasping for something he could say to make an impression before their interview was over when the floor shook and there was the unmistakable sound of a huge explosion outside.

The Queen let out another adorable growl and turned to them. “Would you excuse me a minute?” Before they could reply she had disappeared in a poof of pink sparkles.

“Uh, like, right this way.” The attendant in the flower crown led them away from the dais. Someone handed them a fizzy drink and a very tiny scone and they joined the crowd milling around outside what were probably the doors to the dining room.

They found themselves a place by the wall and waited with the rest of the crowd. Dirk watched the dais where the Queen had just reappeared in another poof of pink sparkles, her cape looking slightly singed. He sighed.

Britt rolled her eyes. “Come on. You really think an ordinary bloke like you had a shot with her?”

“You don’t know! Maybe she’d appreciate an outside perspective!”

Britt gave him a patronizing look and ticked it off on her fingers. “She’s royal, magic, and a certified badass. Also possibly a war criminal, depending on who you ask. Besides, doesn’t your old man hate the princesses?”

“Well, yeah, but maybe he’d feel differently if one of us… Oh, you miserable old woman, can’t a guy at least dream?” He wasn’t actually mad at Britt, he’d have given her the same amount of hell if she’d been trying to chat up some lady, but, dang.

He popped the little scone thing into his mouth and washed it down with the fizzy drink. Bah. Everything here was too sweet for his taste.

Well, except for one thing. He watched the Queen greet a pair of antler headed men.

“Do you think they’d get mad if we got back in line? Maybe this time, I could—” He paused at the sound of someone calling his name.

“Dirk! There you are!”

“George! Lance!” Dirk pushed his way through the crowd of people. They had opened the doors into the dining room and the crowd was shuffling through so he had to fight the tide of people to get over to his dads. When he finally reached them, he wrapped them both in his arms. “You remember Britt, my mentor? Britt, my dads.”

Britt shook hands with his fathers and exchanged greetings.

“Let me see you, my boy.” George held Dirk at arm’s length. “It’s been far too long!”

“Well, you know the post out there is terrible, and I planned to come visit but the dig took longer than we expected and then there was that whole interplanetary invasion situation—”

“We’re just so glad to see you!” Lance’s eyes were getting all misty. Dirk shook his head. He loved them but they were also painfully embarrassing sometimes. “Your brother will be so happy to see you too.”

“Yeah, where is he?”

“He’s with his friends, we’ll meet him after, we have so much to tell you, his girlfriend—”

“Girlfriend?” Dirk laughed so loud several people turned to look at them. “You’re kidding, right? What is she, a librarian?”

George and Lance exchanged a glance.

“Actually—” George began, but a Bright Moon guard interrupted.

“Excuse me, sirs, but the dinner is about to begin and the royal family has reserved special seating for you. May I take you to your seats?”

“Ooh, fancy!” Lance beamed at the guard and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Come along, George. Dirk, we’ll find you again after dinner.”

“Right. See you soon.” George clapped Dirk on the arm again. The old man was still pretty strong. “I bet you’ll have figured out most of it by then anyway.”

Dirk didn’t have time to figure out what the heck that meant before Britt was grabbing his arm and pulling them into the dining room before the doors shut. Though, now that Dirk looked at it, this was probably some kind of ball room they’d moved a bunch of tables into because this room was massive, teardrop chandeliers, flowers blooming up the walls themselves, and a giant ice sculpture of what had to be the Princess Alliance in the middle of the all the tables. Everything shined and sparkled. Almost too much for his senses that were used to squinting by lamp light in a dark hole all day. He scanned the room as a tiny busgirl let them to their seats.

“Special seating? Since when are your folks pally with the royal family?” Britt had to practically shout to make herself heard over the excited buzz of conversation around them.

Dirk shrugged. Even if he had an answer, he didn’t think he’d be able to make himself heard anyway. He exchanged awkward greetings with the sea elves seated to his other side and watched the room fill in as everyone took their seats.

It was several minutes later when Britt crooked a finger at him and he leaned down towards her. “You’re not going to give that poor boy a hard time, are you?” Britt gave him a reproachful look. “About the girlfriend?”

“You better believe I am! I have no more solemn duty as a big brother than to give him as much crap as possible about this girlfriend.”

Britt looked ready to object, but they were serving the meal now, amazing smells and foods Dirk had never seen in his life spread before him. He started heaping his plate.

Several servings later, he felt stuffed and happy. Man, a fellow could really get used to this royal life. Speaking of, he’d been tracking that head of pink hair around the room all night which was a challenge because she kept poofing in and out at random. He’d had a look —and a boring history lesson, thanks to Britt—at all the princesses in the alliance now. The Queen had done a special presentation thanking each of them and bringing them up to the stage for applause.

“Isn’t that the Horde second in command who destroyed our village?” The sea elf at his side was asking his companion.

“Carrying on with the She-Ra like that? It can't be! ” The other replied and Dirk followed their gaze to the cat girl he’d seen earlier. She and Ponytail were seated with the other princesses and alternately nuzzling each other and wrestling like a pair of kids.

They were all so young. He had at least 10 years on the oldest one there. Barely adults and they’d been fighting this war their whole lives. He watched the hot one with the claws dancing with a slender woman in a dress covered in flowers, laughing as they both tried to twirl each other at the same time. Well, good for them. They all deserved some peace for a while.

Lance’s big laugh carried across the room and he finally spotted his dads sitting on the opposite side of the room with a bearded man in a regal robe. He nudged Britt. She'd been ignoring him since she hit it off with a hunched old woman with twigs in her hair that was sitting on her other side. And she made fun of his taste in women!

When Britt turned his way, he pointed towards George and Lance’s companion. “Who’s that sitting with my dads?”

“You’re kidding, right? You don’t know King Micah?”

King Micah? His dads knew the King? Lance said something low to King Micah and the two of them laughed, the King so hard he pounded the table, and even George was smiling as he rolled his eyes at them. Not just knew, then. Were good buddies with? Dirk was getting the idea that maybe he didn’t know as much about his family as he thought he did.

He was still puzzling it out when Queen Glimmer gave her speech thanking the ordinary people present for their contributions to the rebellion. It was very stirring and all about the magic in all of us or something but Dirk couldn’t focus on it because he kept watching his Dads looking at Queen Glimmer, leader of the rebellion they absolutely hated, affectionately and wondering what exactly he was missing here. Then King Micah joined his daughter on the stage and they did some presentation where they gave a chair to a winged horse that he didn’t quite understand but which got a big laugh and applause from everyone at the Princess Alliance table. Then they brought up the pirate looking fellow from before and gave him a model of a boat that he immediately set on fire, which no one but Dirk seemed to think odd at all.

But then even the rowdy table of princesses got oddly silent as Queen Glimmer called for attention again. She looked flustered for the first time all evening and kept looking down at her hands. Dirk wasn’t the only one leaning forward trying to figure out what was coming.

“Before we go for the evening, I have one last ordinary person I would like to thank on behalf of the rebellion. Someone who is kind and brave and who we absolutely could not have done it without. A master archer, tech master and the best friend anyone could ask for. And without whom I personally would have died at least a dozen times over. This whole thing today was his idea which is fitting because there’s no one who better represents the difference an ordinary person can make.” The Queen was looking at someone, her eyes twinkling, literally twinkling, but Dirk couldn’t see who it was from here. “Anyway, I had a bunch more I was going to say, but this is really really embarrassing so just come up here already!”

There was cheering from the princesses as a young man rose from the table and walked up to join the royals on the little raised stage. He stood facing the Queen with his back to the crowd and she met his eyes and split into an enormous grin.

“There’s your competition,” Britt whispered, nudging his arm. “The soldier.”

Dirk didn’t dignify that with a response but he glared at the guy’s back a little harder. OK, so he had some muscles under that suit jacket but he was still pretty sure he could take him. 

“I actually thought about knighting you, but then Adora wanted to be knighted too and it was a whole big thing so I just made up a title. So I hereby dub you Bright Moon’s official Royal Master of Technology…” The soldier bowed his head, and she tapped him on the shoulder with some kind of official looking scepter. “Which is, honestly, kind of a boring title but, it’s just for now until you upgrade, you know, if we...” The soldier raised his head at that and the Queen flushed bright red. “I mean, if you want to, obviously—” She bit at her lower lip.

There was a rowdy “Woooo!” from the princess table, following by catcalls, in at least one case literally, and banging of glasses. Ponytail yelled, “Oh, you mean when you get married and he becomes King?” in an obnoxious way and everyone at the table laughed.

“Well, if… I just meant…” Queen Glimmer was red to the tips of her ears. She looked for about half a second like she was going to try to regain some kind of Queenly control over the situation before she just dropped the scepter unceremoniously on the floor. “Oh, to heck with it!” And then she and the soldier were wrapped around each other, kissing. Their friends went wild and the whole room joined them.

When it seemed like neither were planning on coming up for air anytime soon, King Micah very obviously cleared his throat and they separated. The Queen, flushed and flustered, gave a last farewell but Dirk wasn’t listening. He was too busy watching her beau return to his seat through the attentions of his all friends.

Dirk wasn’t sure how long he sat there like that, trying to figure out what he’d just seen. The room had almost cleared out and Britt had disappeared with the weird broom lady. Waiters cleared plates around him and the flower princess came by to shrink the centerpieces. Dirk was still sitting, dumbfounded, when George and Lance found him.

“Figured it out, have you?” George said, clapping him on the back. Dirk could only nod.

Lance laughed so hard he doubled over. There was wheezing involved. “Well, come on!”

They made their way towards to the princesses table where the party was just getting started. Nobody spared a glance at the stranger in their midst except for the soldier who looked up with surprise and recognition.

No, not “the solider.” His not so little anymore, apparently not bookish at all and dating the freaking Queen of Bright Moon little brother, Bow.

“Dirk!” Bow ran over and gave him a tight hug. The kid had really filled out, he was all muscle under there.

“Hey!” Dirk pulled Bow into a headlock because, hero of the rebellion or not, that was what you had to do, but Bow maneuvered himself out in half a second, laughing. “A rebellion soldier, huh? Hanging out with princesses.” Dirk looked at his little brother, who he really didn’t know at all, and shook his head. He turned to his dads. “And you guys knew about this?”

“Yes. And we’re so proud of him,” George said. A look passed between his dads and Bow and Dirk had a feeling there was more to the story there but before he could ask what it was, Bow was calling to the table behind him.

“Hey, Glimmer! Come meet my brother!”

“What?” Glimmer said, disappearing from one side of the table and appearing right next to them. Dirk guessed if he could teleport he would never use his feet either. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we finally get to meet one of Bow’s elusive siblings! I thought you looked familiar!” Bow put his arm around her, notching her into his side like they were two halves of the same thing. She leaned back into his shoulder and he looked down at her with adoration. Well, damn. Guess they really were in love. For once he was glad the NewsVids were right about something. “Your brother did some heroic stuff! I gave him a metal! I don’t remember what it was for because I gave out a lot of medals today but it was probably very impressive.”

“Well, I can’t wait to hear all about it.” Bow grinned at Dirk. He looked so content, so comfortable in his own skin, so completely unlike the kid he’d known at home that Dirk couldn’t help but feel so happy for him. Bow gestured toward the table where the rest of his friends were looking their way. “Come on. I want you to meet everyone.”

The Queen had disappeared again in a burst of sparkles and was behind Ponytail and the cat girl, pointing their way. Dirk put an arm around his little brother, this time without the headlock. “Alright, but then you’re going to tell me what you’ve really been up to all this time because the person I’m most interested in meeting right, little bro, is you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading this completely pointless thing I just felt like writing!
> 
> Things you may be wondering about…  
> -I went with Bow’s oldest brother, the one who sent their dads the pottery shards, because he’s the only sibling we know about for sure. And I named him Dirk because that was one of the names the writers were originally going to use for Lance.  
> -His mentor is named Britt because that’s the last name of the voice actress who played the original She-Ra and I am LAZY.  
> -If anyone would like to use Britt or Dirk in their own fics, PLEASE DO! They would love to get out more! Take ‘em!
> 
> Comments are always hugely appreciated no matter how long after posting it is!
> 
> Visit my Tumblr for asks, fic updates and misc thoughts. [https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com](https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com/)


End file.
